A drone display over Manhattan on Wednesday night recreated the fallen Twin Towers in the sky, using 2,977 individual lights — one for each person killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to The Daily Wire.
The free event, titled 2,977 Lights Over New York Harbor, was organized as a commemorative public art installation and was developed alongside members of the 9/11 community, including family members, survivors and first responders, ABC News 7 reported.
Organizers described the display as a moment of reflection and unity rather than a spectacle, and the show unfolded as memorial services were being held across the country in the days leading up to Friday’s 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Built with the 9/11 community, not just for it
Those involved in shaping the installation include Brenda Berkman, an FDNY first responder and artist; Tim Brown, an FDNY first responder in both 1993 and 2001; Terry Strada, president of 9/11 Families United and widow of Tom Strada; Jim Smith, whose wife, NYPD Officer Moira Smith, was killed in the attacks; and Genevieve Siller, daughter of firefighter Stephen Siller, who died while helping people escape the burning towers.
Their involvement, according to ABC News 7, was intended to ensure the tribute reflected the people most directly touched by the events of that morning rather than functioning as a generic light show.
The drone formation lit the harbor area with the outline of the two towers that once dominated the lower Manhattan skyline, a silhouette that remains one of the most recognizable images of the attacks.
A quarter-century later, a debate over memory
The show arrived at a moment when the question of how 9/11 is remembered — and whether it is remembered accurately — has become its own subject of public argument.
Most Americans pledged after the attacks that they would never forget. The Daily Wire reported that a new collaboration with filmmaker Ami Horowitz found what it described as a disturbing number of people in New York expressing sympathy for, or offering justifications for, the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
In Canada, the CBC sent a memo to its staff instructing them on how to refer to the 2001 attacks, specifically asking reporters not to describe them as terrorist attacks and instead to call them “hijackings,” which, in the wording of the memo, “led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Manhattan” — language that downplays the intent behind the events.
Those debates over terminology and framing have run parallel to a broader cultural effort to preserve the record of what happened, from anniversary programming to the testimonies of survivors and the families of those killed.
Heroism stories resurface as the anniversary nears
Alongside the policy and media disputes, more personal forms of remembrance have been drawing attention. Tribute videos have accumulated large view counts on social media in recent weeks, and accounts of heroism, courage and resilience continue to circulate ahead of the anniversary.
The drone show was one such effort — a public, temporary monument with no plaque and no permanent footprint, visible for a single night over the water.
Its scale carried a specific arithmetic: 2,977 points of light in the night sky, matching the number of lives ended on September 11, 2001. For the organizers and the families involved, the intent was less about spectacle than about that number — each light standing in for a name, and each name for a person who did not come home.
Memorial observances are expected to continue through Friday’s anniversary, marking 25 years since the attacks.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-incredible-drone-show-recreates-twin-towers-honors-each-9-11-victim